The Kernel says McDonald’s is beginning a trial of wave-and-pay systems in Austria that skirts many of the existing efforts. Instead of using a bank-based NFC payment card or a credit card-based one like MasterCard’s or Visa’s, it uses cloud-based verification of a customer’s ID through a system called Paybox, run by local telecom firm Telekom. Users sign up to Paybox separately feeding in detalis of their credit cards, and then simply download an app that connects over NFC to McDonald’s cash registers–it’s more secure as there’s no payment data stored on the phone. The idea is similar to Apple’s EasyPay system that uses iTunes as a back-end user verification route, and develops on McDonald’s earlier experiments in Portugal’s drive-thru restaurants with that country’s ViaVerde automated motorway toll payment system.